Ofqual has suggested that a move towards digital assessment would make exams both more authentic and more valid.

The qualifications regulator’s executive director for strategy, risk and research, Michelle Meadows, has set out four key ways in which moving exams online could help assessment.

Exclusive: DfE wanted to move 2021 GCSE exams online

Making the leap: Where have on-screen exams been introduced?

Analysis: How long would it take to introduce online GCSE exams?

Explained: What’s it like to sit a GCSE online?

Revealed: How online GCSE trials have already begun

Digital Revolution: How GCSEs and A levels could be transformed online

1. More ‘authentic and valid’

Dr Meadows said that digital assessment would “open up opportunities to improve the validity of assessments through inventive item design”.

She added that this could include the use of interactive graphics or animation to present information that might be difficult to portray on paper. Pupils could analyse large data sets, while simulated science experiments would allow item types that would be “impossible on paper”.

“In sum, assessment that is more authentic and valid,” she said.

2. More ‘secure’ assessments

Dr Meadows added that the security of assessments would be improved, with “no more wrong exam packets opened, no more security breaches with exam questions appearing on the internet”.

“Although the risk of cyber-attack would need to be robustly managed and malpractice would of course evolve,” she added.

3. More motivating

“There is also evidence that some students, often those less engaged in education in general, find onscreen assessment more motivating and enjoyable,” she said, adding that this could make “testing a more positive experience for some”.

4. Opens up possibility of adaptive testing

“Taking e-assessment a step further opens up other possibilities such as on-demand or adaptive, personalised assessment,” she added.

In March, Tes revealed how the Department for Education wanted to move the 2021 GCSEs and A levels online prior to their cancellation.

And Tes also show how all three major exam boards in England have been conducting research working towards a move to online exams, with two boards piloting digital tests.

But yesterday, speaking to a City of London schools’ conference,  Dr Meadows also made it clear there were still significant conditions that needed meeting for such a move to be successful. She said:

• Government sponsorship and leadership would be critical for the introduction of online exams. There would need to be “political will” to make the move.
• The public will need to be convinced about the benefits of moving to online exams.
• Government would need to have an appetite for risk and an acceptance that things may go wrong - “there would be some learning by doing” in a move to online exams.
• “There’d need to be a level playing field in terms of the quality and speed of devices and the ability of students to practice on new systems,” Dr Meadows said.
• “In England, there would also be an issue with finding sufficient space for online sessional exams to take place,” she added, noting that there were more than 700,000 students entered for GCSE maths and for GCSE English in 2019.